A new report from the county council's Environment Scrutiny Panel has made a series of recommendations on how the county council can further reduce its carbon footprint and cut down on energy consumption.
The Environment Scrutiny has made a series of recommendations in a report to Cabinet today, including:
- Cumbria County Council should consider introducing an incentive scheme to encourage car-sharing for both members and officers.
- Departments across the authority should be encouraged to implement a system to co-ordinate staff travel to meetings, reducing the number of individual journeys undertaken by staff in the course of their duties.
- Cumbria County Council should sign up to the Nottingham Declaration. This would put the council in line with over 100 other local authorities, who have pledged to take action in their local area and work with other authorities to reduce emissions across the country.
- Cumbria County Council should identify opportunities for the application of sustainable technologies and additional energy reduction measures and ensure these are implemented where feasible.
- The Council should identify a reduction target for its carbon dioxide output over an identified period. It should also consider what additional measures and funding are needed to achieve that target and how it may produce financial savings.
- The 2008-09 budget round should incorporate consideration of how the authority can help realise the aspiration of being a community leader on sustainable development in Cumbria, and to ensure that the authority embraces energy saving and sustainable technologies where possible, including providing further finance for existing initiatives such as Action At Work.
- Options for greater involvement between the county council and schools on sustainability be considered. This would build on the successful work on the waste agenda, undertaken by Waste Prevention Officers at Client Services.
- The council should look at its portfolio of sites to identify those where renewable energy technologies might be employed as 'demo' projects and ensure this is publicised across the county.
- The council should explore using the University of Cumbria as a conduit for linking up with companies actively contributing to the development of sustainable technologies, for example the local production of sheep wool for building insulation.
- The council needs to work with partners to develop a Sustainable Procurement Strategy to facilitate purchasing from suppliers with CCC-approved environmental policies and ethical standards in place.
The Government published its draft Climate Change Bill on 13 March 2007. The Bill is currently in a consultation period and proposes to set an upper limit on carbon emissions for every five-year period, from 2008.
Cumbria County Council has implemented an energy-saving initiative called Action at Work across the council, this also cuts down on waste and changes staff attitudes. Energy champions have been nominated for each council building to oversee office recycling facilities, educate staff about energy use and provide ideas to expand the initiative.
The new Council Plan (agreed by Full Council on 15 February 2007) includes a significant component on sustainability. The Council Plan indicates that a climate change strategy for Cumbria will be in place by October 2007, programmes will be implemented in 30 council buildings to reduce resource use by December 2007 and a pilot scheme for video conferencing will be undertaken to support a minimum of 50 meetings in 2007/08. This work complements the county council's involvement in the North West Climate Change Charter
Currently, the council receives monthly reports from utility companies (gas, electricity, and oil) detailing the amount of energy used and the cost. This information is then fed into the Energy Management Database, which covers all buildings for which the county council has responsibility. The council uses two suppliers of 'green' electricity, one caters for large and one for small council buildings. This does not, however, include schools who can choose their energy suppliers, as part of the management of their own budgets.
Later this year it will become a government requirement that each public building is issued with a Building Energy Certificate. This indicates how energy efficient a building is by giving an energy rating, in the same way that domestic appliances such as fridges, freezers and washing machines are rated for energy efficiency. The council has an Energy Conservation Budget for investing in energy efficiency improvements to existing buildings. A total of 140 projects were undertaken between 2003 and 2006.
Cllr Tom Clare, Chair of the Environment Scrutiny Panel, said:
"We're looking at a future which could well see carbon reduction targets included in performance requirements for local authorities. Cleaner energy sources, energy saving practices and a reduced dependence on burning fossil fuels will be a crucial part of the future of local government in the UK."
Cllr Ian Stewart, Cabinet member responsible for Environment, Transport and Planning, responded to the report by saying:
"This work makes it clear that the county council already does a lot on reducing its carbon footprint and striving to be a greener organisation. The question is, are we doing enough? We will take these recommendations and have a closer look at their cost implications and the impacts they will make if we decide to implement them. But we welcome the report and its direction of travel and recognise that it has raised some important issues."
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